Unofficial Royal Enfield Community Forum
Royal Enfield Motorcycles => Bullet Iron Barrel => Topic started by: Spitting Bull on August 09, 2018, 08:44:39 pm
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I bought a W650 and hadn't ridden the 350 Bullet for over two years until last March when I gave the bike a service. It started first kick and I set off down the road. Less than half a mile from home the front tyre blew out (no drama). I pushed home, put the bike in the garage under a sheet and there it stayed for the next 5 months except for battery maintenance. Today I removed the wheel, fitted a new tyre and tube and put the wheel back in. I was putting my tools away when I saw the distance collar lying on the floor. It goes back before the brake plate. So I took the wheel off again, fitted the distance collar and put the wheel back in. I was tidying away when my wife brought me a coffee and asked, "Is that anything important?" "That" was the big felt washer that goes back before the distance collar. So, off came the wheel for the third time. By the third time, I could remove and refit the front wheel in under five minutes, just like I used to. And I remembered the parts that fall off and roll away, just like I used to. But after a test ride - Oh! - the sound! The smell of the hot cast iron back in the garage! The bullet gets a fair crack of the whip from now on.
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I actually enjoy replacing the bits that come loose or fall off. Most Enfield parts are still relatively cheap compared to any Japanese parts. The RE has given me more pleasure than I deserve.
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I think riding a bullet is possibly the most fun you can have by yourself. I had forgotten this. My test following the fitting of the new tyre reintroduced me to so many things - the unhurried pace, the sounds, the huge step between second and third gears, the need to blip the throttle for downward gear-changes etc., etc. Suffice to say that the bikes are now stored in the garage so that the Bullet is the easiest one to get out next time.
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I cannot count the times I've had everything finished and realized I'd forgotten a part. Usually something that is buried and requires complete dis and re-assembly. Good news is you caught it. And apparently your wife too. ;)
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Spitting Bull, I hear you on the smell of a hot bullet. The oil, fuel aromas are all part of the Original experience. Takes you back in time. Takes me back to when we used to buy old britbikes and coax another year of rattling valves, stripped shifter splines, and blown zener diodes out of them. Your pointer fingers always smelled like gas. I consider my bullet a souvenir of my riding past.
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I also get nostalgic riding my IB Bullet and feeling like I'm back in my youth when everything felt so vivid, chugging along on old Brit bikes while others went Japanese. By contrast, my SV650 feels slickly soulless. I even consider the UCE bikes too modern. When something rattles loose, it makes me chuckle.
In the old days, my friends and I might leave a spare spacer, c-clip or roller bearing on the bench after one of us did a major repair just to get a rise.